Col. John Glover Letter to the Massachusetts General Assembly, Beverly 1776

“

To The Honorable General Assembly of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Now Assembled

Sirs,

We the Subscribers, Immediately after the Battle of Lexington on the Nineteenth of April 1775 were by the Committee of Safety, appointed Field Officers to rain, Embody & discipline, a Regiment of Men, to Repel the Hostile Attempts of a Barbarous & Bloody Enemy who threatened destruction to all around them, for the encouragement and support of the officers & soldiers that Honorable Committee hands to us an establishment ??? in Provincial Congreg. For the Monthly pay of each officers & soldiers, which has been punctual fulfilled to every one, except the Field Officers who are now informed, their wages curtailed for what reason they cannot tell, they are sensible a Proposal was made by a Committee to members of the Col of the Regiments in Cambridge to reduce their wages, which we are informed some of them consented to. We were not consulted, nor know anything respecting their deliberations and are consequently very differently circumstanced. We think it a point of Duty to inform the Assembly of our Disatisfaction and as every other officer & soldier has been paid agreeable to the establishment, and the offerings of those of who our sister Colonies who were went to [complete] the Army have been paid by a like establishment copied from ours. We cannot but view the singing out the Field Officers as a high Reflection on their honors and would therefore beg the Honorable Assembly, would take the Matters into consideration & order the full wages to be paid.

We are with the Highest Respect theirs
Most Obedient, Honorable Servants

[signed by]
John Glover, Col
????
William Sr. [?] May [?]

Beverly 12^th. June
1776